


Lemon Drops

by gretawhy



Category: High School Musical (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 11:56:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10639365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gretawhy/pseuds/gretawhy
Summary: Written for lidda_anne who requested a) party at the Evans house sometime after the second movie; b) Chad has a secret crush on Ryan; c) various stages of drunkeness; d) Ryan in black skinny jeans; and e) the lineThe problem with alcohol is that it makes you lose your inhibitions and you wind up doing things you'd only ever dreamt about in your wildest dreamswhich I altered slightly to fit my story.  Hope you like it!





	

The fireworks are over, the staff – well, the staff who weren’t high school kids anyway – are cleaning up from the party, and Chad and Ryan are sitting on the edge of the pool, their feet dangling in the water. Chad is leaning back on his hands, his face tilted towards the sky. Ryan is sitting straight, doing his best to keep his eyes from wandering to the boy next to him. Most of the time he’s successful, but he’s taken enough small glances to know if he looks directly over his left shoulder, he can see the line of Chad’s throat and the fullness of his lower lip. But if he ducks his head and looks around his shoulder, he can move his eyes over Chad’s chest, still covered in his _he did it_ tee shirt, the material stretched over his pecs. And best of all, if he doesn’t move, doesn’t even turn his head, just shifts his eyes to the left, his gaze can fall on Chad’s thighs, see the fine hair on his legs, and then it’s easy to move his gaze up, follow the inside seam of Chad’s shorts, the line of the zipper and he can basically see that Chad dresses to the right.

“Your parents go away soon, right?” Chad asks him and Ryan guiltily rips his eyes away from Chad’s crotch and turns slightly, looking at Chad. Chad has lowered his eyes from the sky to look at him.

Ryan nods, “Yeah, they leave Thursday night.” He wrinkles his forehead and tilts his head, “How do you know about that?”

Chad shrugs and sits up and his shoulder brushes against Ryan’s. “I don’t know. Isn’t it common knowledge? Your parents go on an end of summer thing every year, don’t they?”

“Yeah,” Ryan tells him and focuses on not moving so he doesn’t lose the touch of Chad’s shoulder. “This year it’s a cruise. Gone for two weeks.”

”Dude,” Chad grins, “you should have a party.” His face is excited and Ryan can’t help but return the smile. “An end of summer party.”

“Um,” Ryan points out, “you were just _at_ an end of summer party.”

Chad laughs, “Yeah, right. This was nothing.” He shifts and Ryan sighs at the loss of Chad’s body heat. Chad pulls his legs out of the water and turns, sitting cross-legged and facing Ryan. His eyes are bright, “This had chaperons. What we need is a real, honest to god, end of summer blow out.”

Ryan’s immediately wary, “Oh… oh, I don’t know, Chad.” He shakes his head, “Shar would never go for it…”

Chad interrupts him. “Oh please. Zeke will make pot brownies and Sharpay won’t care after two or three.”

Ryan’s eyes bug out of his head. “You want to get my sister high?” He’s almost embarrassed at the squeak in his voice, but… Sharpay? High? “Isn’t she annoying enough sober?”

Chad laughs out loud, “Maybe pot will mellow her out.”

”Or make her more insane!” Ryan shakes his head, “No, bad idea. I don’t want that many people in my house.”

Chad bites his lip and Ryan sits on his hands to keep himself from reaching out and touching the spot where Chad’s teeth rest on his lip. “Hm,” Chad says, his eyes on the pool, his mind clearly working. “Okay, fine. We’ll just invite the important people. The gang.”

“The gang?” Ryan asks, immediately regretting showing any kind of interest in Chad’s plan. 

Chad nods, “Yeah. Troy, Gabriella, Taylor,” Ryan showed remarkable restraint here, he thought, he didn’t even make a face at the mention of her name, “Zeke, Jason, Kelsi, Martha…” Chad looks at him, “And you and Sharpay of course.”

“Of course,” Ryan says dryly. “I don’t know, Chad. We’re not big drinkers.”

Chad obviously takes Ryan’s hesitance as a yes and grins. “Oh come on. I bet you’re a fun drunk.”

Ryan shakes his head. “No, I’m not. I’m a paranoid drunk.”

Chad raises an eyebrow. “Paranoid?”

“Yeah,” Ryan sighs, looking at the water and definitely not at Chad. “I find the problem with alcohol is that it makes you lose your inhibitions-“ 

Chad interrupts him again, a habit Ryan does not really enjoy, “Yeah, it does,” Chad grins widely.

Ryan continues as if Chad never stopped him, “and you wind up doing things.”

”Things?” Chad prompts when Ryan goes silent.

Ryan licks his lip and his voice is soft. “Things you’d only ever thought about in your wildest dreams.”

Chad’s quiet for a full minute and when Ryan glances at him, there’s a smirk on Chad’s face. “Ugh, what’s that look for?”

“You dog!” Chad says, pushing him lightly. “What have you done?”

Ryan groans and gets up, pulling his legs out of the water and standing. “I am not having this conversation with you,” he says. He hopes it comes out as haughtily as it sounded in his head.

Chad’s not deterred, though, and Ryan’s not surprised. Chad stands up, falling in step next to Ryan. “I want to know. Hook up with some chick?” He grins, elbows him. “Some guy?”

Ryan looks at him, his eyes wide. “What?”

Chad almost looks chagrined, but there’s something in his eyes that gives him away. That, and the slight quirk of the corner of his mouth. “Come on, Evans.” When Ryan doesn’t reply, Chad’s smile falters, “Oh. Oh shit. I’m… wow.” Chad runs his fingers through his hair and backs away from Ryan. “I’m sorry. I’ll just…” he waves his hand in the general direction of the exit, “…go.” Chad offers Ryan a slight smile, but it’s obviously forced and Chad obviously feels awful, but Ryan just nods, doesn’t reply, and watches him leave.

***** 

Ryan feels awful. He replays the scene over and over in his head, and like the actor he is, he rewrites it, tries out different lines, different endings. The most popular one ends with Chad pushing him against the side of the country club and shoving his tongue down Ryan’s throat; but when Ryan really thinks about that option, he realizes that no matter what he might have said to Chad about being gay, _that_ was never going to happen.

Because there’s Taylor. Taylor who’s smart and funny and cute and female. And if the way Chad and her looked at each other was any indication, exactly what Chad wanted. And why wouldn’t he? If Ryan swung that way, Taylor might be someone he was interested in. After Kelsi, of course. And possibly Martha, because that girl could dance. And maybe Gabi, because Gabi had really good hair. But Taylor would definitely be on that list somewhere.

So Ryan mopes around a bit, tries to figure out how to fix this with Chad. Because it’s not like anything’s really _broken_ , but in some ways, Chad is the first real friend Ryan’s ever had, and he doesn’t want to lose him. 

Ryan sighs and realizes how pathetic that really sounds. But he won’t lie to himself, it’s true. Sharpay’s always been the one that has people drawn to her, and Ryan’s never really minded being in her spotlight. That is until he realized if he stepped out of her light once in a while, he shines pretty damn bright himself. And it took a stupid baseball game that he technically shouldn’t have even played in to make him realize that.

And maybe that was Gabi’s doing and not Chad’s, so maybe he should consider Gabi his first real friend – outside of anyone in drama, of course. But he doesn’t. Because Gabi’s nice to everyone, she’s everyone’s friend, so being friends with Gabriella – while fantastic – isn’t anything like being friends with Chad.

It’s not that Chad’s not a friendly guy, because he obviously is. Chad’s just… single minded. Who else would carry a basketball around school with him “just in case?” All Chad cares about is sports. And his friends are all people who also care about sports. So for Ryan to break into that, it’s something special. It doesn’t matter that they bonded over a stupid baseball game, sports is rarely a topic of conversation between them anymore. Yeah, the first few times they hung out, baseball inevitably came up, but that was just Chad trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Ryan could actually play ball. 

But now things are different. Chad’s called Ryan lots of times just to come over and hang out. Ryan’s part of something now, he’s part of the clique of kids at school that everyone worships. Ryan’s looking forward to his senior year just so he can maybe sit with them in the cafeteria and have people look at him in awe, maybe this year people will want to be him. Ryan feels like he’s close to something now, he can be popular outside of his drama world. Outside of Sharpay.

Except if he doesn’t fix this little mess with Chad, he’ll still be stuck at the drama club table. Although, Kelsi’s there and they’re totally going to write the senior musical together, so maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. 

No. No! He wants to sit next to Chad. He wants to be able to rub elbows with him on a daily basis. Actually, he wants to rub a lot of things with Chad on a daily basis, but that line of thought just brings him right back to Taylor.

Ryan groans and flops onto his bed. Well. You have to take the bad with the good, he supposes, so in order to be near Chad, he has to deal with Taylor, so he might as well get used to that. He throws his arm over his eyes and thinks.

He could have a party. No, he didn’t want a bunch of animals at his house, but he could take Chad’s advice and just invite a small group of people. And the rec room did have French doors that opened to the deck, so he could feasibly contain the people in that room or outside near the pool. The rec room offered a lot of entertainment for high school kids; the TV was there, his and Shar’s karaoke machine was there, plus the pool table, darts and ping-pong. And well, Ryan didn’t cook, but he’s pretty sure he could get a number of a good caterer to bring some finger foods for them.

He purses his lips and vaguely wonders if he should run this by Sharpay. He debates on what she would say, tries to decide if her wanting Zeke to worship her for a night would outweigh the fact that there would be Wildcats in her house. It’s too big a risk, he decides and he just picks up his phone and texts Chad. He doesn’t call; he’s not really sure how Chad would react to him after basically calling him gay.

“Party Saturday. Not a lot of people, just who you said. Oh, and no pot brownies.” He hits send and then reconsiders the text. “Also, no alcohol,” he types and hits send again.

A couple minutes pass and Chad answers. “no beer? lame. how will I get u drunk with no beer? c u sat. time?”

Ryan rolls his eyes at Chad’s text and vaguely wonders if Chad realizes that spelling out the word see and you wouldn’t take that much more time. “I don’t know. How about seven? You do the invites,” he texts back.

“K. c u then.”

Ryan rolls his eyes again and steels himself to go tell Sharpay.

***** 

Of course Chad doesn’t listen to Ryan and he and Troy show up at Ryan’s house on Saturday at 6:30 with beer.

”I said no beer,” Ryan says, crossing his arms and blocking the door.

Chad raises his eyebrows, “Oh. You were serious about that?” Ryan throws up his hands in exasperation and Chad winces slightly. “So I’m guessing you were serious about the pot brownies, too.”

Ryan groans and steps back, allowing the two boys into his house. “I don’t have anywhere to put it.”

Troy carries his two cases to the back of the house and outside. “No problem,” he says to Ryan, setting the beer down on the deck and motioning to the tubs of ice filled with soda. “We’ll just get rid of the soda,” he grins and claps Ryan on the shoulder before brushing past him to go back out to his truck. Presumably to get more beer.

Chad sets the cases he was carrying down and looks at Ryan, smiling faintly. He lifts his hand and rubs the back of his neck. “So um, I told people they could crash here.” Ryan raises his eyebrows and Chad shrugs, “Well, come on. They’re going to be drinking! I didn’t want anyone to drive!”

”You tell Sharpay,” is all Ryan says and Chad visibly deflates.

“Can I get her drunk first?” he asks and Ryan can’t help but smile at him. Chad returns the grin and then shifts awkwardly and Ryan knows what’s coming, he knows Chad’s going to bring up the other night.

He holds up a hand to stop Chad. “No, don’t. It’s fine. Really. No big deal.” Chad opens his mouth and Ryan shakes his head, “No! I mean it. No.”

Chad takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Fine. If you say so.” He appraises Ryan, looking him up and down. “You look good Evans. I have no idea how you fit into those pants, much less walk in them, but hey, whatever works.”

Ryan looks down at his black skinny jeans and grins to himself. He agonized over what to wear for longer than should be allowed. He finally had to just pick out a hat and go from there. He had thought that would be easier, but he had just bought himself three new hats the day before, so it was much harder than anticipated. He finally settled on a black and red newsboy hat, so the obvious choice had been his black skinny jeans. It didn’t hurt that Ryan knew his ass looked fierce in them. The shirt had been easy after that, of course it had to coordinate with the hat, so he chose a simple red and white striped dress shirt. Tucked in to show his ass, of course.

“Thanks,” he says to Chad. He grins at Chad, “You look… like Chad.” Chad’s wearing jeans a tee shirt that reads _I’m hotter when you’re drunk._ Ryan wonders if it’s possible for Chad to be hotter.

Chad laughs and points at him, “I’ll take that as a compliment, Evans.” Ryan ducks his head and laughs, and realizes that yeah, it was a compliment.

Sharpay comes outside and sees the beer and puts her hands on her hips. “Beer? I thought you told them no beer,” she says to Ryan.

“Hi Sharpay,” Chad mutters, and Sharpay doesn’t even look at him.

Ryan shrugs, “They didn’t listen. So we have beer.” He hesitates and then says, “And you might want to stay away from Zeke’s brownies, they’re…”

Sharpay scoffs. “Whatever. The only thing I plan on eating is Zeke’s brownies.” She looks distastefully at the table of finger foods. “I refuse to eat all that fried food.” She tosses her hair and turns back to the house.

Ryan looks at Chad. “I tried to tell her,” he says.

A slow smile splits Chad’s face. “This? Is going to the best party ever.”

***** 

Taylor shows up at about twenty after seven. Ryan’s already feeling tipsy from the two beers he had in the past fifteen minutes. He blames the short amount of time for the fuzzy feeling in his head. Chad blames it on the fact that he’s a lightweight.

“I am not,” Ryan states and only slurs his words a little bit. Chad laughs at him and his eyes brighten and Ryan decides that maybe it’s not so bad being a lightweight if it gets Chad to smile like that.

He’s opening his third beer when Taylor comes into the room and Chad looks up and says, “Tay!” and Ryan scowls, but gets off the couch after Chad and goes to greet his guest. 

Taylor grins at Chad and hugs him and Ryan very nicely doesn’t rip her arms off her body for touching Chad. They part and Ryan looks behind Taylor to see a guy he doesn’t know standing awkwardly behind her.

“Hey, Eddie,” Chad says and the stranger – Eddie – grins at Chad and they do some weird complicated handshake, the point of which always escaped Ryan.

”Um. Who are you?” Ryan blurts out, and he realizes it’s probably rude, but he doesn’t care. He’s drunk. Ish.

Taylor grins and wraps an arm around Eddie’s waist. “This is Eddie. My boyfriend.”

“What about Chad?” Ryan asks.

“What about him?”

Ryan looks between Taylor and Chad. “You’re dating him.”

Taylor bursts out laughing and Chad’s smiling at him. “I most certainly am _not_ ,” Taylor says.

Ryan wrinkles his forehead and looks at Chad, who is still smiling. “You really thought we were dating?” Chad asks him and there’s something different in his voice and Ryan really, really, really wishes he hadn’t had those two beers, because he thinks if he were completely sober, he’d do much better with this conversation.

“You were! At the beginning of summer!” Ryan says.

Chad shrugs, “We went out once. And Eddie was our waiter.” Chad grins, “Apparently, she likes older men who are smart and going to college to become doctors.”

Taylor laughs, “Oh please you were…” Chad shoots her a look and she shuts up and Ryan feels like he’s missing something, but he can’t be bothered to figure it out, because Chad is single. 

Straight. But single. 

Ryan shrugs and takes another drink of his beer, suddenly feeling happier. “Whatever. Nice to meet you. There’s beer out back. Oh, and pot brownies, but we’re not telling Shar there’s pot in them.” Ryan grins, “She’s had about a half a pan of them already. She’s kind of clueless.”

Taylor pulls Eddie away in the direction of the beer and Chad’s smiling at him. “What?” Ryan asks, wiping his mouth. 

Chad shakes his head. “Why didn’t you just ask me if we were dating?” 

Ryan rolls his eyes and brushes past Chad, heading back to the sofa. “Like I care who you’re dating, Danforth.”

Ryan thinks he sounded pretty convincing.

***** 

“What the hell are you doing!” Ryan asks, running to Zeke and Troy who were… moving his ping-pong table outside?

Chad laughs, “Relax, Evans. We’re taking your ping pong table onto the deck.”

”Yes, I see that,” Ryan replies. “Why?”

“Beer pong,” Zeke tells him. Like that answers anything.

Ryan looks helplessly at Chad, who throws his arm around Ryan’s shoulders and leads him outside. “Beer pong is a game played on a ping pong table. We figured you wouldn’t want to get beer all over the floor in the house.”

Ryan wonders if anyone else in the house is drunk at all, because that was actually pretty logical thinking on their part. He gives Chad a look. “Are you even drinking?”

Chad blinks and then laughs, holding up a bottle of beer. “I am. I’m just not a lightweight like you.”

Ryan rolls his eyes and says, “Okay, so how do you play?”

Chad explains the rules as Jason and Zeke set up the cups. “There’s ten cups on each side, set up like bowling pins.” Troy comes back with a few bottles of beer, opening them and pours a little into each cup. “We usually use three beers per side per game. You put a little in each cup, the front cup about halfway full, and make the others even with the rest of the beer.”

Ryan nods and glances at Gabi and the others when they come outside. Martha is carrying a small chalkboard and Ryan cannot for the life of him figure out where she got that and he doesn’t remember her bringing it. They set up the chalkboard and start making brackets.

Gabi tosses a couple ping-pong balls to Troy, who catches them and watches Zeke pour beer. “Okay,” Ryan says. “Then what?”

Chad points as Troy and Gabi stand on one side of the table and Jason and Martha are on the other. “Okay, so you’re on teams. And the point of the game is to throw your ball into the other teams cups. When you do, they drink the beer in the cup. Now, some people play that you take the cup away and make the target smaller, but we play that you keep the cup there and if you hit the empty cup, you have to drink one of your own.”

Ryan blinks and isn’t really sure he’s getting the drift of the game. “So what’s the point?”

“The point,” Chad says, “is to get rid of all the other teams cups. See, when you have nine empty and just one left, you take them all away except the one that’s still full. And then you aim for that cup. Whichever team gets rid of the other cups first wins.”

Ryan shakes his head, “I don’t understand.” 

Chad laughs and throws his arm around Ryan’s shoulder – for the second time that night, not that Ryan’s counting or anything. “Dude, don’t worry. You’ll get it by the time we play.”

Ryan turns his head to look at Chad. “We?”

Chad nods, “Yeah, totally. You’re my partner.” He looks at Ryan and the corner of his mouth quirks up. “You don’t mind if I play on your team,” he meets Ryan’s eyes, “do you?”

Ryan swallows thickly and wishes he were sober so he can figure out of Chad realized that innuendo. “No. It’s fine.”

“Good,” Chad says. “Now pay attention. I want to win the tournament.”

Ryan’s eyes move to the chalkboard where Sharpay is writing names on the brackets. The first game is Troy and Gabriella against Jason and Martha. The second is Zeke and Sharpay against Ryan and Chad. The third bracket is empty except for Taylor and Eddie’s name. From listening to the others, Ryan gathers that the empty bracket there will go to a new team that will be made from the losing team. Ryan shakes his head and doesn’t try to figure it out; he assumes he’ll catch on when it actually happens. 

Chad stands next to the table and watches the game, and since Ryan needs another beer and he doesn’t care to watch people throw a ping-pong ball, he wanders over to Sharpay. She’s currently picking up another brownie.

“Ryan!” She exclaims. “Have you had these brownies?” She shoves the brownie in her mouth. “Oh my god, they’re so good.” Her voice is very excited and her words all run together and it takes a few seconds for Ryan to figure out what she said.

He nods, getting another beer. “Yeah, they’re great.” He opens his beer and swallows half the liquid in the bottle.

“You better slow down,” Sharpay tells him. “Or you’re going to do something stupid.”

“Says the girl who’s already eaten a whole pan of brownies,” Ryan counters.

Sharpay waves her hand. “But I’m not the one getting drunk.” She looks at the table, “God, I’m so _hungry!_ ” She picks up a pig in a blanket and Ryan watches in horror as she eats it. Sharpay Evans, eating tiny hot dogs. Those must have been some good brownies.

Ryan looks back at Chad, who is currently drinking, his head back and his throat working. Ryan’s eyes are mostly glued to Chad’s throat, watching him swallow. Sharpay snorts next to him. “Yeah. You won’t do anything stupid. Right.”

Ryan looks at her. “What are you talking about?”

Sharpay motions to Chad with a chicken finger. “You have wanted in Danforth’s pants since the middle of summer. And now you’re drunk. And he…” she makes a face, “looks better than he normally does,” she shudders, as if admitting that physically pains her. She looks at Ryan and her eyes are surprisingly clear. “Don’t make a pass at a straight boy, Ryan.”

Ryan shakes his head, “I won’t. I promise.” He looks back at Chad, who is watching him. When Ryan looks over, Chad raises his beer and tilts his head, motioning towards it. Ryan nods and reaches for another bottle.

”Lapdog,” Sharpay mutters, picking up a mozzarella stick and shoving it in her mouth.

”I’m just getting him a beer, Shar,” Ryan tells her. “I’m not dropping to my knees.”

“Whatever,” she tells him as Zeke comes over. “Just slow down. I’m not going to baby sit you all night.”

“I never asked you to,” Ryan points out and he smiles at Zeke, who grins in return.

“Evans twins!” Zeke says and Ryan is glad to see he’s not the only one at the party who’s not stone cold sober. He gets himself a beer and wraps an arm around Sharpay’s shoulder. “Are you ready to kick your brother’s ass in beer pong?” 

Sharpay giggles. “It’s going to be epic,” she says and Ryan tilts his head at her. Epic?

Zeke laughs and kisses her temple, pulling her towards the table. “Come on, Troy and Gabi won the first round.” He glances over his shoulder, “Evans, grab the beer!”

Ryan scowls and mutters, “Thanks so much for your help, Zeke.” He squats next to the bucket and loads his arms with six beers for the game and two more for him and Chad. 

Chad meets him halfway and takes a few beers from his arms. Chad walks next to him. “Okay, Zeke is good, but when he gets drunk, he gets worse.” Chad throws him a grin, “So basically, I’ve been making Zeke do shots for the last fifteen minutes. He’ll overthrow. And I’m guessing Sharpay has never played before and she’ll suck.”

Ryan puts the beers on the table and Chad opens them to pour. “I might suck, too.”

Chad gives him another one of his damn smirks and opens his mouth and Ryan holds up his hand. “Don’t, Danforth.” Chad obediently shuts his mouth and grins.

***** 

Turns out, Ryan’s _awesome_ at beer pong. He hits his first throw and misses only four times the rest of the game. He and Chad knock off Zeke and Sharpay in record time and sit and wait for the other game to end. Chad’s giddy with excitement and his eyes are bright and Ryan thinks _finally_ because it looks like Chad’s finally feeling the affects of the alcohol.

“Dude. _Dude!_ ” Chad keeps saying. “You’re fucking awesome!”

Ryan ducks his head and blushes and shrugs his shoulders. “Yeah, I guess.”

The other games go as quickly as the first. Troy and Gabriella play Taylor and Eddie and Ryan wonders just how much Eddie plays, because he’s pretty good and they beat Troy and Gabriella in about ten minutes. Ryan and Chad play Jason and Kelsi, and Jason sucks when he’s drunk, so it’s barely a competition. Then Ryan and Chad play Taylor and Eddie for the championship.

Taylor’s a lightweight, even worse than Ryan, so she’s worthless, leaning against the wall in between throws. Gabriella is giggling and handing her shots and the two of them are getting drunker by the second. Eddie is still awesome, hitting most of his shots, but he’s no match for Ryan and Chad.

Ryan is on fire and he would never admit it, but the fact that Chad keeps touching him after he throws the ball into the cup is pretty fucking good incentive to keep doing it. Chad’s getting progressively drunker and with that, progressively more touchy feely. Ryan keeps an eye on him, and Chad seems to be like that with everyone, not just him, and Ryan hates that he’s disappointed.

But really. Who gives a shit? Because Chad currently is grinning at Ryan and his arm is around Ryan’s shoulders and his head is resting on Ryan’s shoulder and his hair smells really, really good, and Ryan doesn’t even care about anything except the fact that Chad’s entire body is pressed against his.

“This is it, Evans,” Chad murmurs and moves behind him, his hands massaging Ryan’s shoulders. “We have two cups left. You hit one of them and when they take them all away, I’ll hit the last and we’ll win.”

Ryan turns his head and Chad’s face is _right there_ and his breath hitches slightly, but he thinks he gets it under control. “And what exactly do we win?”

Chad smiles and squeezes Ryan’s shoulders. “Bragging rights?” He hesitates and then says, “I don’t know. What do you want?”

For the hundredth time that night, Ryan’s wishing he weren’t drunk, because he’s pretty sure Chad’s eyes just darkened and his voice lowered just a bit, but goddammit, he’s not really sure, so he doesn’t say one of the eight million things that would be a perfectly good flirty response to that question. Instead, he says, “Bragging rights are good.”

Chad smiles and picks up a shot glass filled with vodka, shooting it before taking the ping pong ball in his hand. He hands it to Ryan, and Ryan smiles and meets his eyes when their fingers brush against each other. Chad returns the smile and motions to the table.

Ryan stands in front of the table and concentrates. He’s not sure how he managed to be good at this game, because it’s not like he _tries_ or anything. He makes a note of which two cups have beer in them yet and lifts his arm, aiming and tossing the ball. It hits the target, but rolls around the inside of the cup. Taylor leans forward and starts to blow in the cup, trying to get the ball to come out.

“Wait! What’s she doing?” Ryan yells. “You can’t do that!”

Chad shakes his head and crosses his arms over his chest. “Don’t worry about it. Taylor can’t blow that well.”

Taylor looks up, forgetting about the ball. “Hey!” she says, offended.

The ball drops into the liquid and Chad smirks. “See? You suck.”

Taylor narrows her eyes at him, “Well, sucking works wonders, too, Chad.”

Ryan raises his eyebrows, kind of horrified at the image of Taylor and anything remotely having to do with sex. “Ew,” he breathes and Chad hears him and laughs.

“I bet you would have blown that ball out of the cup,” Chad says in an undertone to Ryan and Ryan’s eyes widen and he turns his head in Chad’s direction. Chad smirks and casually lifts his beer bottle to his lips, brushing past Ryan – his whole body coming in contact with Ryan’s, _again_ \- to stand in front of the table.

Taylor picks Ryan’s ball out of the cup and drinks the beer inside. Eddie is taking away all the empties, leaving the single cup with beer in it on the table for Chad. Chad lifts his hand and aims the ball. His tongue is resting on his lower lip in concentration, and try as he might, Ryan cannot pull his eyes from it. Sharpay clears her throat loudly, and Ryan snaps his attention to her. Her eyes are wide and she makes a face, shaking her head and looking pointedly at Chad. Ryan rolls his eyes and looks back just in time to see Chad let go of the ball. It sails through the air and lands perfectly in the lone cup at the other end of the table.

”Yes!” Chad yells and grabs Ryan, hugging him. “We totally just kicked beer pong ass!”

Ryan laughs and wraps his arms around Chad, hugging him. He wants to press his face into Chad’s neck, but he doesn’t, content instead to close his eyes and inhale, memorizing Chad’s scent.

The others mumble congratulations at them, and Chad grins, clearly basking in the glory. Ryan shakes his head and laughs softly; Chad really does thrive on competition sometimes.

He moves away from Chad, to the food table, taking another beer and vaguely wondering how many he’s had during the night. He twists the cap off and tosses it on the ground, taking another long swallow. He might have been against having beer earlier in the night, but now he sure was glad it was there.

“Come on, Evans,” Chad says, and Ryan jumps slightly, he hadn’t even heard Chad come up behind him.

“Come on Evans, where?” Ryan asks.

Chad just grins and wraps his hand around Ryan’s wrist, tugging him towards the house. Along the way, Chad grabs a bottle of vodka off the coffee table in the rec room and Ryan wrinkles his forehead, because when did that bottle get there? But he doesn’t think about it much more because Chad’s still pulling him into the kitchen.

“Lemons,” Chad says to Ryan and at Ryan’s blank stare, Chad adds, “do you have any?”

“Oh.” Ryan blinks, “Yeah, in the fridge.” Chad moves to the fridge and Ryan thinks to ask, “What do you need lemons for?”

Chad grins and gets the sugar off the counter – and how did he know where that was anyway? – and puts them both and the vodka on the island. “Lemon drops,” he says, matter of factly and begins opening drawers. Ryan doesn’t bother asking what he’s looking for, because he happily holds up a knife.

“Dude,” Ryan says, and Chad giggles at Ryan’s use of the word, “you’re totally gonna cut yourself.”

”Relax,” Chad tells him and he starts to cut the lemon into wedges. “I’m a professional!”

Chad cuts two lemons and manages to not cut himself at all, and eventually, Ryan stops worrying Chad’s going to cut himself and starts wondering just how many shots Chad plans on doing. After cutting a third lemon, Chad puts the knife to the side and looks up at Ryan.

Ryan raises his eyebrows and waits. Chad rolls his eyes and lifts his arm. He grins at Ryan and locks eyes with him as he licks a spot on his wrist. Ryan swallows thickly and he finds it’s physically impossible for him to look away from Chad. Chad smirks and puts sugar on the wetness on his wrist, then ducks his head again, slowly licking the sugar. Ryan inhales sharply. And if the smile that appears on Chad’s face is any indication, he totally heard it. After licking the sugar off his arm, Chad takes a swallow of vodka, then immediately sticks a lemon wedge in his mouth, sucking on it. 

“Lemon drops,” Chad says again, tossing the lemon rind on the counter. “Your turn.”

Ryan nods and does what Chad did, but he’s pretty sure it’s not even a little bit as sexy as when Chad did it. Chad’s eyes are on Ryan’s mouth, though, and if there’s one thing Ryan knows how to do, it’s how to make licking look sexy. He closes his eyes and licks sugar off his arm slowly and when he opens his eyes again, Chad’s eyes are still on his mouth and his breathing is shallow and his hands are gripping the edge of the island. Ryan smirks and reaches for the vodka, swallowing much more than a shot’s worth and Chad wordlessly hands him a lemon. Ryan puts the lemon between his teeth and sucks, the liquid not as sour as he was expecting, the taste of sugar in his mouth counteracting it.

“My turn,” Chad says, and his voice is low and Ryan wonders if someone walking in the room would be able to actually see the tension that suddenly appeared between them.

Chad reaches over the island and grabs Ryan’s wrist again. He pulls Ryan around the counter so he’s standing in front of him. Ryan’s eyes are wide, waiting.

Chad keeps his eyes on Ryan and unbuttons a few of the buttons on Ryan’s shirt. Ryan bites his lip to keep from moaning, because he has no idea what’s going on, but anything that involves Chad doing anything remotely like undressing him is okay in Ryan’s book. Chad pushes one shoulder of Ryan’s shirt to the side and Ryan unconsciously tilts his head, exposing his neck and collarbone. Chad leans closer and slowly licks a path on Ryan’s neck and Ryan whimpers, holds onto the island behind him just in case his legs give out.

Chad blindly reaches for the sugar bowl, putting some on the spoon and shaking it over the wet spot on Ryan’s neck. Ryan bites his lip and watches Chad, knowing that Chad’s going to lick his neck again, so he’s trying to steel himself for it. Chad picks up a lemon and holds it up to Ryan’s mouth. Ryan opens his mouth a bit and Chad puts the lemon, rind facing in, into Ryan’s mouth. He then ducks his head, tongue swiping over the sugar on Ryan’s neck and Ryan groans, because somehow, it’s better the second time around, and then too soon, Chad’s pulling back, reaching for the vodka and tilting his head back to drink. He puts the bottle to the side, and leans forward and _oh god, oh god, oh god_ uses his teeth to take the lemon out of Ryan’s mouth, his lips brushing against Ryan’s briefly. He pulls back just a hair and his eyes meet Ryan’s, and Ryan can see Chad sucking the juice of the lemon and then Chad turns his head, spitting the lemon rind on the island behind Ryan and Ryan breathes, “You _are_ hotter when I’m drunk,” and kisses him.

***** 

So he’s not sure this is a good idea, but he’s sure he doesn’t care. Chad’s hands are on either side of his hips, pressing Ryan against the island, Chad’s lean body completely pressed against him. Ryan’s hands are on Chad’s waist, fingers digging into Chad’s sides, holding him there. 

Chad makes a soft noise and tilts his head, which deepens the kiss, which makes Ryan’s fingers press into Chad’s waist even more. Chad’s definitely kissing him. He’s absolutely not pulling away, which means that somewhere in Chad’s head, this is a good idea, and Ryan’s thrilled at that, because Ryan always knew this would be a really fucking good idea. Okay, maybe not _always_ knew, but he had his suspicions.

Chad’s tongue swipes against Ryan’s lips until Ryan’s mouth opens, and Chad groans and his hands move from their place on the island next to Ryan’s hips to Ryan’s face, cupping it and holding Ryan’s mouth against his. Ryan’s hands move from Chad’s waist to around his back, his fingers sliding under the hem of the tee shirt Chad’s wearing to brush against bare skin. Chad suddenly pulls his mouth from Ryan’s and Ryan whimpers at the loss, but then Chad’s mouth is on Ryan’s jaw and he’s whimpering for a whole new set of reasons.

Ryan’s shirt is still half opened and Chad’s mouth follows the bare patch of skin showing, over his throat and down his chest. Ryan’s leaning against the island, his back arched, wanting more, wanting Chad to have every fucking part of him that he wants. Chad’s fingers are scrabbling under the hem of Ryan’s shirt and there’s a part of Ryan’s head that’s screaming at Chad to just rip the shirt off already, just get it _off_ , but then there’s that sensible part that really kind of hopes Chad doesn’t rip it, cause it was expensive.

Chad doesn’t rip it. He lifts his fingers and undoes another button, his tongue swiping along Ryan’s chest. Ryan moans Chad’s name, says something that sounds a little like, “God, please,” and then Chad opens another button and Ryan himself is about to rip the shirt off him, just because Chad is now dragging this out and that’s really quite unfair.

Finally, _finally_ , Chad finishes unbuttoning Ryan’s shirt and it’s hanging open and Chad’s half on his knees, but he looks up at Ryan and his eyes are dark and Ryan’s fingers fist into Chad’s hair and pull him back, crushing their mouths together. Ryan’s lips are parting on their own, his tongue forcing entry into Chad’s mouth, but Chad isn’t resisting and they’re kissing hard, hungry, teeth hitting each other in their frenzy.

“Chad Danforth, get _off_ ,” A voice says from somewhere behind Ryan and Ryan groans. Seriously? This is her timing.

“I’m trying,” Chad mutters against Ryan’s mouth and Ryan laughs softly. Chad doesn’t back away from Ryan; he just lifts his head and looks over Ryan’s shoulder at Sharpay. Ryan sneaks a look over his shoulder and sees her standing in the kitchen doorway, her hands on her hips, her eyes narrowed, her hair a mane around her head. “Okay, Sharpay, here’s the deal,” Chad says, and his voice is so matter of fact, Ryan kind of loves him a little for not backing down. “I’m going to be doing a few things to your brother. Now, you can stay if you want, but we’re not going anywhere, so unless you want a free show, I suggest you leave.”

Ryan starts praying Sharpay leaves. Chad’s hands are still on Ryan’s skin, his thumb skimming over Ryan’s torso as he speaks, then brushing a nipple, and it’s so unexpected that Ryan hisses and bites Chad’s neck, sucking lightly on the bite. Chad’s eyes half close and he looks at Sharpay, waiting.

“Sharpay, what are you…” Zeke’s voice is now in the room and Ryan groans again, dropping his head onto Chad’s shoulder, because really, people? Can’t they see he’s trying to score with Chad Fucking Danforth? “Whoa,” Zeke says and Ryan doesn’t have to look to know Zeke’s eyes are wide. “Chad. _Dude_ ,” and now Ryan’s wondering just how much Chad’s friends know about him.

Chad’s fingers curl around Ryan’s nipple, tugging on it lightly and Ryan’s about to seriously slide down the cabinets and force Chad to just put his fucking mouth on him immediately, but Chad’s voice is calm, as if his hands weren’t doing amazing things to Ryan’s body. “You guys gonna watch?”

“No!” Zeke says quickly and Ryan almost smiles, except Chad’s hand is now snaking down the front of his body and brushing against the waist of his pants. “No, we’re going, we’re going,” Zeke tells Chad, and Ryan hears Sharpay make a feeble protest of her brother’s taste and how they should stop them, and then Zeke’s voice is further away as he yells, “Yo! Dudes, stay out of the kitchen. Seriously!”

Chad laughs softly and looks back at Ryan. “Now,” he says, “where were we?”

Ryan whimpers because he was half convinced Chad’s stupid friends and his stupid sister were going to ruin the mood, but he had nothing to worry about, because Chad dips his head and flattens his tongue on Ryan’s collarbone, sliding it across and down, swirling around a nipple before biting gently on the bud, tugging lightly. Ryan’s hands are gripping the island so tight, he’s sure his knuckles are white, but it’s what he has to do to keep from forcing Chad to his knees.

Chad takes his time, tasting Ryan. His tongue moves over Ryan’s chest and along his torso, and the whole time, his fingers are running along the waist of Ryan’s pants. Ryan’s a mess, he’s whimpering and writhing against the island and he finally begs Chad to “just touch me, please, Chad. Touch me.”

Chad looks up at him and gives him one of his half smirks and then Chad’s hand is sliding over the front of Ryan’s pants, cupping Ryan’s erection. Ryan moans softly and throws his head back and Chad moves back up Ryan’s body, his lips against Ryan’s throat, sucking on it as his hand flattens itself on Ryan’s stomach.

Chad’s fingers dip inside the waist of Ryan’s pants and then stop. Chad pulls back a bit and when nothing happens for a minute, Ryan opens his eyes and looks at Chad. “Change your mind?” he asks, and kind of hates the pathetic tone of his voice.

“Hell no,” Chad says and then grins. “I’m just trying to figure out how in the hell I’m going to get my hand down your pants. Jesus, Evans, did you paint these on?”

Ryan laughs and looks down at his pants. Yeah, okay, the black skinny jeans made his ass look fierce, but they sure didn’t do much in the way of access. Ryan presses his lips against Chad’s again and reaches down, popping the button and opening the zipper and Chad wastes no time in sliding his hand inside Ryan’s boxers and wrapping his fingers around Ryan’s cock.

“Jesus,” Ryan moans, his head falling onto Chad’s shoulder. Chad’s fingers are wrapped around him, and he’s slowly, agonizingly stroking him. Chad’s free hand slides up Ryan’s chest, his fingers playing with his nipples as he moves his hand faster. Ryan’s already thinking of every non-sexy thing he can because he swears he’s not a twelve year old kid and this cannot end within thirty seconds of Chad touching his dick.

Chad lowers his mouth to Ryan’s skin again, and starts kissing his way down Ryan’s body. His tongue laps at Ryan’s nipples, then his mouth is moving lower, nibbling along Ryan’s ribs, pausing to suck on a particularly sensitive spot on Ryan’s side, and the whole time, Chad hasn’t stopped moving his hand. Ryan’s hips are thrusting into Chad’s hand, he gave up trying to keep them still, but Chad’s not complaining. Chad pushes Ryan’s pants a little lower, frees his cock and Ryan’s head falls back, because now Chad can stroke faster and he knows that it’s futile to pretend this isn’t going to be over soon, because it is.

Chad’s tongue dips into Ryan’s navel and Ryan sucks in a breath. “Chad,” he moans softly, his hand finding its way into Chad’s hair. Chad glances up at him and moves his mouth to Ryan’s hipbone, wrapping his lips around it and sucking lightly and that’s all it takes. The feeling of Chad’s tongue on his hip sends Ryan over the edge and he twitches, comes with a jolt and even though he knew it was coming, he’s surprised and he cries out weakly, Chad’s name falling from his lips.

Chad doesn’t get up right away; he continues to kiss Ryan’s hip, his hand still stroking Ryan’s cock. His thumb brushes over the sensitive head and Ryan spasms again, a fresh wave of pleasure hitting him and he feebly pushes Chad’s hand away, “Too much,” he mumbles and Chad laughs softly, but moves his hand to Ryan’s hip, squeezing it and then he makes a slow journey back up Ryan’s body, his tongue trailing along Ryan’s skin until he’s standing in front of him. Chad smiles at him softly before leaning forward, pressing a soft kiss to Ryan’s lips.

Ryan kisses him back, and this time it’s different, the kiss is slower, not as urgent and Ryan’s pretty sure he likes this kiss better. But he’s also pretty sure he’ll never kiss Chad like this again, that Chad was drunk, had a moment of weakness and Ryan’s kind of okay with that, he got this once, he shouldn’t be greedy and expect it again. So he memorizes Chad’s taste, looks for the core taste of Chad that’s under the lemon taste and the beer, and he saves it. He stores it in the part of his brain that’s already wired for Chad.

“We should…” Chad pulls back slightly and waves his hand around the kitchen, “probably not be in the kitchen.” 

“Yeah,” Ryan says and nods. He awkwardly reaches for his pants, pulling them back up his thighs. He zips them, wincing at the sticky wetness and then moves from between Chad and the island, starting to clean up the lemons.

Chad’s watching him. “What are you doing?”

“Putting this stuff away,” Ryan says, not looking at him.

“Why?”

Ryan shrugs, “I don’t know.”

”Let’s do it tomorrow,” Chad suggests and Ryan nods, putting the knife in the sink and turning around, his eyes on the floor. “Hey,” Chad says softly and suddenly he’s standing in front of Ryan. “What’s wrong? Do you… oh. Okay.” 

Chad takes a step back and Ryan looks up sharply, because what just happened? “What?”

Chad shrugs, “You regret this. It’s cool. I mean, we’re drunk.”

Ryan’s head is reeling. “What? Wait, no. No, I don’t. I don’t regret this.” He’s shaking his head quickly, his voice emphatic, he needs Chad to know he does not regret anything.

“Yeah?” Chad asks, his voice unsure.

“No, I mean. Yeah. I mean…” Ryan growls and reaches out, gripping Chad’s tee shirt and pulling him towards him. Chad stumbles slightly and then Ryan’s kissing him, Chad’s hands resting on his hips. 

“Okay, then,” Chad mumbles against his lips. “Can we go to your room now?”

”Yes,” Ryan says and doesn’t look twice at the mess as he pulls Chad towards the stairs.

***** 

Ryan wakes up sticky, smelling of sex, and alone. He groans and looks at the clock and sees it’s just about eleven in the morning. He cocks his head and listens to hear if Chad is in the bathroom, but the room is silent.

“Great,” Ryan mutters and sits up. He’s naked. Ryan’s sure Chad was naked, too, when they finally fell asleep, but a glance around the room tells him that Chad must be dressed now, because Ryan doesn’t see his clothes anywhere.

Ryan runs his fingers through his hair and replays last night in his mind. After the kitchen, he and Chad moved to Ryan’s bedroom, where they were uninterrupted for the rest of the night. Ryan can still taste Chad on his lips and he tilts his head, remembering Chad’s awkwardness, his tentativeness when Ryan nudged his head down, lifting his hips, wordlessly asking Chad to give him a blowjob. Ryan’s eyes widen and he realizes that Chad had never done that before. If he hadn’t been drunk last night, he might have paid attention then, realized that Chad didn’t really know what he was doing, but Ryan was so caught up in the fact that Chad Danforth was actually putting his mouth on Ryan’s dick, that Ryan couldn’t really think about anything beyond that.

“Fuck,” Ryan says and stands up, shuffling to the bathroom. He was Chad’s experiment. Chad was obviously loaded and obviously just looking to get a hand job and maybe if he was lucky a blow job – and Ryan was all to happy to give him both – and the fumbled blow job Chad gave him really meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Ryan brushes his teeth, but the taste of beer is still there and he reaches for the bottle of aspirin in the medicine cabinet and takes two, and then when he has to grip the countertop to steady himself against the pounding in his head, he takes another. He wets a washcloth and wipes it over his chest and torso, getting the dried come off his skin. He tosses the washcloth in his hamper and goes back to his room. He can vaguely hear the sounds of people up and about in his house, so he slips on a pair of pajama pants and a tee shirt and heads downstairs.

Zeke has made himself at home in the Evans kitchen; he’s at the stove in a tee shirt and boxers, and there’s something cooking that smells amazing. Troy and Gabriella are sitting at the table, plates of food in front of them, but neither are eating. When Ryan gets closer, he can see the French Toast on the plates and his mouth actually starts to water. Troy’s head is propped on his hand and Gabi’s leaning against him, her eyes shut. Jason is in the third chair at the table, and he’s picking at his food, but his eyes are half shut and Ryan’s not altogether convinced he’s not going to fall asleep right there at the table.

In the fourth and last chair at the table is Chad. His back is to Ryan, and Ryan can see he’s not wearing a shirt. When he steps into the kitchen, he can see a bruise on Chad’s shoulder and Ryan smiles faintly, because that was from him. 

Zeke looks up when he comes in and grins, “Hey Ryan. Want some French Toast?”

Ryan raises his eyebrows at Zeke and very studiously does not look at Chad. “How are you functioning well enough to make this? You were loaded last night.” Ryan moves around the island – which someone had cleaned up – to the fridge and gets the orange juice. He reaches for a glass and pours some.

Zeke shrugs and flips some of the toast on the griddle. “I never get hangovers. I’m lucky.”

“Fucker,” Troy mumbles.

Zeke holds out a plate of French Toast. “So?”

Ryan’s about to answer when Chad speaks. “I got some for him.”

Ryan looks over at Chad, who smiles warmly at him. “I didn’t know when you’d get up, so I just got enough for both of us.”

“Aww,” Zeke mocks and Chad gives him the finger. 

Ryan moves around to where Chad is sitting and reaches for the plate. Chad lifts his hand and wraps it around Ryan’s wrist, pulling him down onto his lap. Ryan looks at him in surprise. Chad just smiles up at him. “Morning,” he says softly and kisses Ryan’s neck. “Go ahead, eat.” 

Ryan looks down at the plate to hide his smile and he sees Chad didn’t put syrup on the French Toast, but on a saucer next to the plate. He raises his eyebrows and looks at Chad, who shrugs, “I didn’t know if you liked it, so I was just dipping.”

”So considerate,” Troy says and Ryan looks up to see Troy watching them. “So when exactly did you decide you were gay, Chad?”

Ryan can feel Chad shrug behind him, “I don’t know, dude. A year ago?”

Troy’s eyes widen and Ryan can see a confrontation coming, so he looks down at the plate and starts to slowly eat.

“A year?” Troy says loudly.

Gabriella groans and sits up, “Can we not yell?” she asks, putting a hand to her head.

Chad sighs, “Troy, come on. I just… it wasn’t easy for me.”

”Easy enough to do Ryan in the kitchen,” Zeke grins and Ryan looks at Chad, who scowls at Zeke.

Jason puts his forehead on the table, “Dude, who cares? More girls for us.”

Ryan rolls his eyes, “yeah, I’m sure if they could see you now, they’d be flocking to you.”

Jason doesn’t lift his head, “Okay, so this isn’t my finest moment.”

”You don’t say?” Ryan grins. Chad chuckles softly into his back.

”So wait,” Gabi says, opening her eyes to study them. “How long have you wanted Ryan?”

Ryan kind of wants to know the answer to this and he shifts slightly to look at Chad. Chad flushes slightly and shrugs, mumbling. “I don’t know. Last year?”

“So because of Ryan you knew you were gay?” Gabi asks, and Ryan’s actually pretty impressed that a girl so hung over she can barely keep her eyes open still can keep her logic.

Chad sighs, “Yeah, I guess.”

Ryan tilts his head and keeps himself from beaming. “What did I do? Was it when I got that new blue hat? You know, the one with the white in it?” They just stare at him and he ducks his head. “That’s not very specific, is it?”

Chad rolls his eyes. “It was the play last year.”

Troy raises his eyebrows and even Jason looks up. “ _Twinkle Town_?”

“Dude, no!” Chad says. “Last year, when we were sophomores.”

Ryan wrinkles his forehead, “ _Joseph_?” he asks and Chad nods. The school had done _Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat_ because it had been one play where the female and male leads didn’t end up having to make out. Ryan, of course, had been Joseph. 

”Really?” Ryan shakes his head. “I didn’t realize you were such a fan of the musical.”

”Dude, you were wearing a loincloth!” Chad says and his face reddens even more. 

Ryan laughs, leaning forward to kiss Chad softly. 

Chad grumbles and kisses him back, “Shut up, okay?”

Ryan grins and goes back to eating. He’s only half listening to the conversation around him, because Chad’s hand is under his tee shirt, his thumb absently rubbing circles on Ryan’s stomach while he talks to Troy.

After a few minutes, Ryan looks up. “Where’s Sharpay? I almost miss the shit she’s going to give me for this.”

Zeke smiles sheepishly. “She’s sleeping off the brownies.”

“How many did she eat?” Chad asks him.

“Um. A lot,” Zeke says. “There isn’t any left and I had two plates of them. I think she had at least one plate herself.”

”I can’t believe you didn’t tell her,” Gabi admonishes. 

Ryan grins, “I tried!” He looks at Chad. “Tell them I tried!”

Chad nods, “He did. But she didn’t listen.”

Zeke leans forward, “Now. Did you try before or after you shoved your tongue down Chad’s throat?”

Ryan reddens and Chad starts yelling at Zeke. But what Ryan realizes is that this is how they are. He’s been around them enough to know that Zeke treats Troy and Gabriella the same way he’s treating Chad and Ryan. 

This is what it’s like having friends. This is what Ryan’s been looking for since he started high school. He leans back against Chad, who presses his face against Ryan’s neck for a moment before he’s arguing about basketball with Troy and Zeke. Ryan rests his hands on top of Chad’s at his waist and lays his head back on Chad’s shoulder and closes his eyes, just listening to the sound of his friends.

And when Sharpay comes in the room and screeches, “Danforth, get your hands off my brother,” Ryan smiles and nods. Yeah. Things are just about perfect.


End file.
